Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/1001

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good tradable mouth, and docs not reft too heavy upon the bit.

A coach horfe is faid to be light, when he ftirs nimbly, and dreads the whip ; or when he has a light trot.

'LiGHT-hand. See the article Hand.

Light bellied, in the manege. A horfe is thus called that com- monly has flat, narrow, contracted fides, which makes the flank turn up like that of a grey-hound.

LIGHTEN, in the manege. To lighten a horfe, or make him light in the fore hand, is to make him freer and lighter in the fore -hand, than behind. If you would have your horfe light, you ought to keep him always difpufed to a gallop, when you put him to a trot ; and after gallopping fomc time, youfhould put him back to the trot again.

LIGHTNING. In the difleaion of the body of a man killed by a {broke of lightning at Petersburg, the abdomen and penis were found greatly inflated. The (kin of the left fide refembled burnt leather ; in the other parts of the body it was purple, except that on the neck, which was red as fcarlet, and there was a fmall hemorrhage from the right ear : on the top of the head there was a fmall wound, as if the flefh had been torn away, but the ikull was not injured; the head was found full of very fluid blood, every' part of the brain being covered with it ; and in the theca of the ver- tebrae there was a great quantity of ferum. The lungs looked blackifh and were collapfed ; the heart had no blood ,jn it, nor was there any in the veffels about it ; the gall bladder, and the urinary bladder, were both collapfed and wholly empty, and the ureters greatly diftended with urine. Act. Petropol. VI. p. 383.

Lightning has been known to render iron magnetical. See Phil. Tranf. N° 437. and N° 459. Sect. 11.

Artificial Lightning. The phofphorus, when newly made, gives a fort of artificial lightning vifible in the dark, which would furprize thofe who are not ufed to fuch a pheno- menon : the ufual method of keeping this preparation is under water, and if the corufcations are defired to be feen to the greateft advantage, the glafs in which it is kept fhould be deep and cyUndric, and not more than three fourths filled with water. The phofphorus put into this water will fend up corufcations at times, which will pierce through the incumbent water, and expand themfclves with great brightnefs in the empty upper part of the bottle. If we compare this artificial corufcation to the real light- ning, we fhall find, that as in tin's the fire paries unaltered through the water, fo in that the flalTies of lightning, which come at intervals, pafs uninterrupted through the moft denfe clouds, and are not obftructed by the heavieft florins of rain, but like the beams of the fun, or any other fire, pafs unin- terrupted through glafs and water. The feafon of the wea- ther, as well as the newnefs of the phofphorus, muft concur to produce thefe flafhes ; for they are as uncommon in win- ter as lightning is, but in warm weather both are very fre- quent.

The flame of lightning is generally inoffenfive, and does not, except under particular circumftances, fet fire to any thing that it falls upon ; and, in like manner, the flafhings of the phofphorus through the water will not burn the flefh, nor even fire the molt combuftible things ; though the phofpho- rus itfelf, like the lightning, under proper circumftancesj may be a very confirming and terrible fire. The warmth of the air, or the immediate beams of the fun will fet fire to the condenfed body of the phofphorus, and it then becomes this terrible fire ; and in the fame manner, lightning when

' condenfed and contracted, and wrapped up in a vehicle of air, fo that it does not fo eafily diffufe itfelf through the yielding Eether, fets fire to trees, houfes, or whatever it comes near.

The phofphorus, while burning, acts the part of a corrofive, and when it goes out refolves into a menitruum, which dif- folves gold, iron, and other metals ; and lightning, in the fame manner, melts the fame fubftances. From the whole, it appears that there is much more refemblance between this phofphorus and lightning, than between gunpowder or aurum fulminans, and that fire ; though thefe have often been fuppofed to be nearly allied to its nature.

LIGNICENSIS terra, in the materia medica, the name of a fine yellow bole dug in many parts of Germany, particu- larly about Emeric in the circle of Weftphalia, and ufed in cordial and aftringent compofitions. It is a common fuc- cedaneum for the yellow Silelian bole, where that is not to be had, and is generally eftecmed very nearly, if not abfo- lutely equal to it in its virtues. Hill's Hift. of FofT. p. 8. It is moderately h?avy, naturally of a fmooth furface, and of a beautiful gold colour. It eafily breaks between the fingers, and does not ftain the fkin in handling, and meks freely in the mouth, but generally leaves a little grittynefs between the teeth. It makes no effervefcence with acids ; and burns not to a red, but to a pale brown, and almoft to a ftone hardnefs.

Charlton (Foil", p. 5.) fays it is more frequently known by the name of terra fig'dlala gdibzrgenfu.

LIGNITES, the name of a ftone defcribed by Ludovicus Dulcis, as having the veins and appearance of wood, and Suppl. Vol. I.

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the tranfparence of glafs. He celebrates it for manv ima- ginary virtues, nor does the ftone itfelf indeed fcem much lefs imaginary ; this author, as De Boet obferves, having defcribed many ftoues which he never faw, and no fmall number that never exifted.

LIGNUM (Cycl.) — Lignum campechianum. See Log-wood.

Lignum colnbrinum. Garcias tells us of the wonderful effects of this drug againft: the bites of venomous ferpents, and de- scribes two kinds of the plant which produces it ; one hav- ing leaves like the pomegranate, and the other like the peach tree : thefe, he fays, both grow in the ifland of Ceylon ; and Acofla mentions two other fpecies of plants producing this wood, both different from either of thofe defcribed by Garcias, and both growing in Malabar. We have alfo ac- counts in the geographm nubienfis of another lignum colnbrinum^ different from thefe, growing in Ethiopia, and pollened of the fame virtues againft the bites of ferpents as the others. This laflr is called in the Arabic haudalhau, the plain verbal tranflation of which is fnake wood, or lignum coluhrinum. He tells us, that it has fome refemblance in form to pyre- thrum, and that the wood is always contorted. Alha cararha is another of its Arabic names, and this Is the word by which Avifenna, and the other Arabian writers, in- terpret the pyrethrum of Diofcorides; but it is not certain,whe- ther the fimilitude of founds between two or more Arabic words, may not have occafioned fome confufion or error here. Dicasarchus, in his fragment of mount Pelion, defcribes the root of a tree growing there, which is not only a fovereign remedy for the bites of ferpents, but even deftroys them by its fmell. This is alfo a lignum cohtbrinwn ; but whether the fame with any of the others, or different from them all, we have not defcriptions enough to determine. It appears, upon the whole, that little can be depended on in the accounts of the medicine called lignum colnbrinum by any author, unlefs he has himfelf experimented what he relates, and defcribed the plant which produces the drug ; for much imaginary virtue has been at all times given to many things againft the bitings of ferpents, and the lignum colnbrinum of one author is not the ligmmi colnbrinum of another. Every one having given this name to the thing which he fuppofed moft deferved it. Garcias tells a remarkable ftory of a fort of ferret, which he calls quirl, or quirpele ; this creature, he fays, is a continual enemy to the rattle fnake, and often voluntarily attacks it in fingle combat ; but before it does this, he lays, it always eats a quantity of the lignum colnbri- num, and moiftening its paws with the fpittle, the creature rubs itfelf all over with it, and then attacks its enemy. The natural enmity between thefe creatures, of the weafel kind and fcrpent, is recorded in many of the antients. Pliny tells us of the hatred of this creature and the bafilifk ; and Solinus adds, that if put into the hole, where a poifon- ous ferpent inhabits, the creature generally perifhes by the bite of the ferpent, and the ferpent is deftroyed by the fmcll of it. If this be the cafe, there needs no anointing with the fpittle impregnated with lignum colnbrinum ; and the whole matter of the enmity between thefe creatures and the ferpent kind, feems rather reducible to hunger than any other provocation, the flefh of ferpents being a very deli- cious food where they can be got at ; but the rattle fnake muft: needs be an overmatch for any of thefe creatures, as it fwallows larger animals whole.

Lignum nephrit'tcum. See Nephritic, Cycl.

LIGULA, a word ufed by medical writers in very different fenfes. Some exprefs by it the clavicle, others the glottis ; others ufe it as the name of a meafure, for things either li- quid or dry, being a quarter of a cyathus, equal to a forty- eighth part of a pint with us i others finally ufe it for a weight, lefs than half an ounce by two fcruples, or ten fcruples.

Ligula marina, a name given by fome botanical writers to a plant of the fucus or fea wrack kind, called by others fucus in ligulas divifus. It ufually grows in places always covered by the fea, not on the banks, which are dry at the ebbing of the tides ; and is for the moft part compofed of a fort of long cords or firings, of an oval rather than a round figure, feldom exceeding a fifth of an inch in diameter, but often two or three feet long, and not unfrequently divided in- to two, at feveral diffances, one above another. The italk is folid, and not hollow, as in the fucus chordam referens, or the ftringy fucus of Mr. Ray ; at leaft the ftalk of this plant is full of a thick and tough vifcous matter, like that found in the bladders, at the extremities of the branches of the com- mon fucus, at the time when the feeds are ready to fall. This gluey matter is of a whitifh green, and the colour of the plant itfelf is a deep olive j there is no rib or nerve to be feen in any part, but its texture is vcryclofe and compact. The indefatigable Mr. Reaumur difcovered irregular flowers in this plant ; they are each compofed of a number of fhort and flender filaments, ifluing out of a little hole, which ferve them as a cup. Thefe filaments are difpofed in a cir- cular order upon the ftalk; and refemble, in miniature, the common radiated flowers of the hawk weed, and the like plants ; but their diameter is not more than the twentieth part of an inch. Notwuhflanding the fmalinefs of tlvefe 15 M flowers,